When components made of metal are used, in particular in motor vehicle construction, great value is set upon a low weight of the component with a design appropriate for the loading. This is usually achieved by the use of what are termed “tailored blanks”. These are tailored sheet-metal plates composed of plate blanks of differing sheet-metal thickness, material quality and/or surface condition which are welded to one another. Tailored blanks make it possible to adapt various points of the later component to local stresses, which otherwise requires additional reinforcing parts. Advantages of tailored blanks are a reduction in weight and production costs. For economically producing components with a design appropriate for the loading, however, discontinuous processing of tailored plates is not always satisfactory. Therefore, tailored metal strips (“tailored strips”) have been developed, which can be processed in progressive composite tools or from which components profiled by roll forming can be produced. Tailored strips are usually produced by continuously welding two or three sheet-metal strips of differing thickness, quality and/or surface condition to one another along their longitudinal edge. To this end, the individual sheet-metal strips (slit strips), which are supplied as coils, are flattened in straightening machines after the uncoiling process. This is followed by edge machining to prepare the sheet-metal edges to be welded to one another. Then, the sheet-metal strips are welded to one another in continuous operation in a laser welding station. After the joining process, the thus produced tailored metal strip is coiled to form a coil or transversely cut into a multiplicity of plates by means of a cutting device.
Tailored strips represent a proven technology. Nevertheless, there is an ongoing search for possible ways to further develop this technology so that fewer process steps have to be performed in further processing to finish end products produced from tailored strips. In particular, solutions are being sought which make it possible to produce tailored components made of metal at lower cost.